Wednesday, May 29, 2013

80-20 has LONG advocated an Asian Am. Supreme Court Justice. We are pleased to inform you that this campaign, started in 2006*, has gone exceedingly well, thanks to all of you and Pres. Obama.

The number of AsAm District Court judges has increase​d​ from 6 in 2006 to 17. The number of AsAm Appeals Court Justices has gone from 0 to 3, including the recent addition of Sri Srinivasan. Will there be an Asian Am. Supreme Court Justice soon?Sri Srinivasan, an Indian Am, was confirmed by the Senate in a 97-0 vote to become the Appeals Court judge in the D.C. District, which is a circuit court whose importance is second only to the Supreme Court. That is because it normally rules on many national issues which are NOT challenged to the SC. Sri is often mentioned as a possible Supreme Court candidate when the next vacancy opens.

When Sri's nomination was blocked by the Republicans, 80-20 invited 4 presidents of the largest Indian Am National orgs. to together write a letter to Sen. Judiciary Comm. Chair Leahy and copied to Sen. Coons of Delaware who was the floor leader for Sri's confirmation. It has a sentence: "If indeed a nominee of Mr. Srinivasan's judicial reputation & temperament is still faced with a filibuster, we urge you and the senate majority leader to advance the 'nuclear option'." To see the letter, click on http://www.80-20initiative.net/pdf/letter-to-leahy-sri-srinivasan.pdf

The "nuclear option" refers to changing the Senate rule to stop a filibuster on Judicial nominees.

Please see how NYT reported the 97-0 vote on Sri and the rage of GOP Senate leader McConnell in the same article: "Mr. McConnell directed most of his anger at Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, accusing him of trying to jam the nomination through and force a rule change that would limit the minority party's ability to block nominations."

80-20's expectation was that Sen. Leahy would use the letter from us plus other similar ones to induce Sen. McConnell to yield and not filibuster. It has apparently worked. :-) 80-20 does so many things that are so important to the long-term best interests of Asian Ams.
Respectfully yours,
S. B. Woo, a volunteer who will irreversibly RETIRE on 12/31/2016
President, 80-20 National Asian Am PAC, Inc. http://www.80-20Initiative.net

Thursday, May 23, 2013

S. B. Woo apologized to 80-20's Boards that the petition for the Supreme Court to repudiate its Korematsu decision has not gone as expected. He admitted having misjudged the readiness of Asian Ams to support this EXTREMELY SIGNIFICANT campaign which would have greatly empowered the Asian Am community.

He said, "If 100,000 people had supported that petition, Asian Ams will be much less likely to be singled out by our government for surveillance, detention and arrest during bad times. But things as they are, 80-20 has stopped its drive for additional signatures for now."

Please READ ON to understand what S.B. Woo is talking about.

(B) Singled Out?
3 cases against Chinese nationals and Chinese Americans have occurred in the last 2 months nationally.

In Delaware, where SB lives, in the last 5 years, 4 Chinese American employees or former employees of the Dupont company have been accused in 3 different cases for commercial "spying" and are under varying stages of investigation, trial and retribution.

Remember the Wen Ho Lee case? Lee was accused of stealing the crown-jewels of our nuclear weapons system for China. He was in solitary confinement for 9 months. At the end? He was convicted of 1 of the 59 original indictments and the presiding judge issued a length apology to Lee. Lee received $1.6 million from the government and 5 news organizations as a settlement. Former Los Alamos Counterintelligence Chief Robert Vrooman stated that Lee was racially profiled, along with several other
Asian-Americans. Click on http://www.fas.org/irp/ops/ci/vrooman.html .

(A) & (B) are intimately related, because "singling out" is illegal. The reason that the government and/or corporations practiced it is/was because we are/were politically weak. We must get ourselves politically organized. The Koremastu Decision is the worst case of singling us out by ethnicity.

(C) Important Reminders
Asian Americans owe PRIMARY allegiance to the USA. Those who are disloyal to America and/or to their employers for personal gains betray the entire Asian Am community, placing our future and our struggle for equality in jeopardy. We should help to stop such betrayals.

At the same time, we must empower ourselves politically to protect ourselves. US history was and is full of examples of discrimination against people who have originated from Asia.

Being politically apathetic is a BAD idea in this land of the free and home of the brave. 80-20 is only as strong as you are!

Participate in a survey?
A group of universities (Stanford University, Cornell University, and Vanderbilt University) is conducting a survey aimed at better understanding the views of Asian Americans. Your answers will remain completely anonymous.

Monday, May 13, 2013

Will We Be Singled Out During War Time?
Japanese Americans were SINGLED OUT for concentration camps during WWII, but not the German- and/or Italian- Americans. So might Asian Americans be SINGLED OUT during war time?

Some claim that Chinese American scientists & engineers have ALREADY BEEN SINGLED OUT and closely scrutinized in their workplaces. 80-20 is monitoring the situation. South Asian Americans were mistakenly SINGLED OUT after 9/11 by some of our compatriots. However, the best way TO AVOID BEING SINGLED OUT is by signing the petition below. It asks our Supreme Court to REPUDIATE the wartime decision that SINGLED OUT Japanese Americans.

PETITION TO THE SUPREME COURT
We, the undersigned, and our children want to sleep without fear that we can be placed under surveillance, arrest or detention OWING TO RACE, ETHNIC OR RELIGIOUS REASONS during wartime exigencies, which the Korematsu decision represents.

We, therefore, respectfully request the Supreme Court of the United States to REPUDIATE the Korematsu Decision, commonly viewed by legal scholars as the worst Supreme Court decision, which is still a "good law" i.e. current and still applicable.

We support the call for "repudiation" by Peter Irons, which has been submitted to each of the nine Justices and endorsed by many legal scholars.

Two of the three branches of our government, the Legislative and Executive, have already apologized for the Japanese internment act. However, the pinnacle of the Judiciary branch, the Supreme Court, has left that decision on the book.

Please REPUDIATE the Korematsu decision.

Respectfully,
Names of petitioners

Remember the 50,000+ "race-neutral college admissions" survey that 80-20 sponsored? Didn't we deliver more than what you hoped for? This is a MORE consequential request. We need at least 100,000 signers to have an impact. If we get 1 million, it may not even matter if the Supreme Court acts. A huge amount of publicity will follow. We will have sent an unmistakable signal to the political establishment. Your dream for security will be reality!
Get your entire family to SIGN IT NOW & Forward this to your friends!

Wednesday, May 01, 2013

The Supreme Court decision to intern Japanese-Ams is still a "good law" that Asian Ams must face squarely. Here is what George Will, a noted national columnist, has to say in Washington Post 5 days ago.

" . . . 110,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of them born here, were sent to camps in desolate Western locations. Supposedly, this was a precaution against espionage and sabotage. Actually, it rested entirely on the racial animus* of Gen. John DeWitt, head of the Western Defense Command."

Scary!
What if, God forbid, a hot conflict occurs between the US and a foreign country the next year? Can some Asian ethnic groups STILL be interned?

Fred Korematsu's conviction was overturned by the 9th Circuit Court in 1983. However, the case was not heard in the Supreme Court which made the internment decision. Hence, THE INTERNMENT IS CLEARLY STILL A "GOOD LAW" IN THE SUPREME COURT.

That "good law" says that it is constitutional that a whole ethnic group of people, whether citizens or not, may be singled out without individual trials, so long as there is a wartime exigency.

A legal historian, Peter Irons, at the Univ. of CA, San Diego is campaigning for a Supreme Court "repudiation" of the Korematsu decision. Repudiation will mean that the "good law" is voided. To read Irons' essay, click on http://www.80-20initiative.net/news/case-for-repudiation.asp. This essay, endorsed by many constitutional law professors, has been submitted to each of the nine Supreme Court justices.

Shall 80-20 organize to support Prof. Peter Irons?
To be successful, it'll have to be a PAN-Asian-Am. movement of unprecedented scale. 80-20 will throw in all its resources, and all of you will have to do your share. When victorious, we and our children will sleep soundly without fear of being singled out owing to a race, ethnic or religious reason for surveillance, arrest, or detention caused by an international conflicts beyond our control.

Reply to this e-newsletter with "YES", if you want 80-20 to act. If 80-20 gets 100 YESES within a day from ALL components** of the AsAm community, 80-20 shall work its tail off for you.